


If I Close My Eyes, Maybe

by awake0rdreaming



Category: The Maze Runner (Movies), The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2016-08-20
Packaged: 2018-05-15 08:11:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5778061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awake0rdreaming/pseuds/awake0rdreaming
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>College AU where Thomas accidentally asks Minho to be his boyfriend and the events that follow after.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Can't Stop This Train

_A/N: Disclaimer for all chapters: The Maze Runner series and all its characters do not belong to me._

_—_

“I need you to pretend to be my boyfriend!” Thomas blurted out the second he barged in through the door.  Newt never locked the door and he lived alone and so it never occurred to Thomas to knock.

“Well. That’s something you don’t hear every day,” said an unfamiliar male voice drily.

Thomas whipped around and found himself face to face with an Asian boy, possibly a little older, looking at him with raised eyebrows.

“Hey. You Newt’s friend?” Thomas asked curious. Newt was notorious for picking up strays, but though this guy seemed puzzled by his question, looked far from lost.

“I don’t know what that means, but who are you?”

“I’m—“ Thomas started to introduce himself when he took a look around. He turned beet red as his mind kindly supplied embarrassing facts to him. One, he was in the wrong apartment. Two, he had asked a complete stranger to date him. Three…

Thomas’ eyes traveled to the well defined chest he could make out through the shirt, down to muscular arms. This guy just _had_ to be hot didn’t he?

“Your staring.”

“Of course I’m staring,” Thomas said before he could stop himself. His face grew hotter as he processed his own words. “I meant, I mean.. sorry.”

Thomas met the Asian boy’s eyes for the first time, to find him grinning. The look he was giving Thomas clearly stated he highly doubted Thomas was sorry about anything.

Before he could embarrass himself further, Thomas stepped back a couple spaces and reached blindly behind him. 

“Excuse me,” he said when his fingers hit the door handle, literally hauling himself out of the room.

Standing in the corridor, he stared at the 17 on the door. He looked to his right, where Newt’s door lay. Whatever courage he had picked up on the way to ask Newt this favour, evaporated.

He wasn’t ready to make a fool out of himself a second time in the same day. “You can handle Gally a couple more days, Thomas.” he said quietly to himself, and made his way down the long hallway.

—

Minho walked into The Griever, and his ears were immediately assaulted by loud bass. He loved this type of music with its savage energy. His body moved gracefully, feeling the music, as he weaved his way through the crowd, nodding at people he knew on the way.

He had worked the early shift for once, and had promised the guys he would come out with them, although what he really wanted to do was go to bed right now. Minho texted Ben to see where he was, and then pocketed his phone as he made his way to the bar.

He was passing the tables, when he caught sight of the boy from the other day, looking harassed. Out of curiosity, Minho inched closer to the conversation, and what he heard had him pause.

“Where’s that imaginary boyfriend of yours?” asked a tall buff guy, a permanent frown on his face.

“He said he would be here,” the boy mumbled, eyes downcast as he fiddled with his phone. 

Minho noticed how he didn’t even try to argue away the ‘imaginary’ part, which was telling. This was a common occurrence. The rest of the conversation, confirmed the suspicion. 

“Right. Like the other number of times he was supposed to meet you but didn’t show up? Almost like he didn’t exist?” came the snide remark.

The smaller of the two glared the other. “Back off Gally. What’s your problem anyways who I date?”

Gally held up his hands, “Hey, chill. I just want you to admit you made him up, that’s all. It’s getting pretty pathetic that you’re still keeping this up.” 

He smirked as the brunette avoided his eyes, looking around aimlessly.

Minho knew the brunette was stalling and wasn’t actually looking to find any recognizable face in the crowd. Making up his mind, he headed over to the bar, where his friend Alby worked.  

As soon as Minho grew close, he pointed to the smaller boy, “Hey Alby? Be a pal and tell me what that guy orders.”

“Minho, what are you up to?” Alby asked shrewdly.

“Its innocent I swear,” Minho grinned, leaning against the counter. “Come on, help a shank out.”

Alby shook his head as though discounting Minho’s claim of innocence, but he still made the drink, sliding it towards Minho. “Seven dollars,” Alby said holding out his hand.

“Are you serious?” Minho asked in disbelief. “For one drink.”

“If you want to feel the road, you have to buy the car first.” Alby deadpanned. 

“Said no one ever.” Minho muttered to himself, as he dug into his pocket and produced a couple bills for both drinks.

Alby asked, “Is he worth it?”

“We’ll find out won’t we?” Minho winked at him and made his way to his target.

—

Thomas felt a hand on his waist, as someone pressed against his back from behind. “Sorry I’m late,” said a familiar voice in his ear. Thomas turned around quickly and found himself face to face with Newt’s neighbour, who gave him a soft smile.  “Have you been here long?”

“No…” Thomas responded, not understanding what was going on. Why was this guy acting like he knew him? He wasn’t ready to see him so soon. In fact, he would be more than happy never seeing him again. Thomas was still mortified by the memory of his blunder.

The guy grinned like he knew what Thomas was thinking and held out his hand. Thomas looked down wondering if he was supposed to shake it, when he saw his favourite drink in the guy’s hand. Okay. Now he was freaking out. How did he know what he drank?

Thomas frowned, and opened his mouth but didn’t know the first thing to say. Still addressing the words to him, the guy looked at Gally and the others and said, “Are you going to introduce your boyfriend to your friends or should I?”

Thomas’ eyes widened. Oh. _Oh._

Relief flooded his face immediately. He changed his mind. He had never been more glad to see this kind, kind stranger! 

Thomas was so happy at the turn of events, he could kiss him. He acted without thinking then, cupping the other boy’s face in his hands, pulling him into a kiss.

When they broke apart, Thomas knew he was blushing. He hadn’t meant to do that. He had meant to say thank you. In private maybe, not.. notactually _kiss_  him right in front of all his friends. 

When was he going to stop embarrassing himself in front of this guy whose name he didn’t even know?  

But the other boy acted like it was the most natural thing in the world to be ambushed by a stranger, because he grinned smugly still playing along, “Looks like someone missed me.”

“Shut up.” Thomas muttered. He took the drink from the guy’s hand and gulped down some of it, buying himself some time to school his features to look relaxed, instead of the nervous mess he felt on the inside.  

“I missed you too,” The Hot Asian—what Thomas had stared calling him in his head— said softly, holding Thomas’ eyes with his, and then he walked past him turning towards Gally, who was watching the entire exchange with narrowed eyes. “Hi. I’m Minho.”

Minho. The Hot Asian’s name was Minho. Thomas watched as each person introduced themselves, all of them wearing a similar dumbfounded expression.

Thomas sincerely hoped they were too distracted by how good looking Minho was, to wonder about the far reach possibility that Thomas could land him as a boyfriend.  

He wasn’t that lucky. Gally already looked like he was ready for some ‘inquiries’.

Soon after the introduction round was up, Thomas rushed in. “Okay, you’ve all met him, seen that he is in fact real and not a figment of my imagination. But if you’ll excuse me, we have to go.”

Thomas reached for Minho’s hand when Gally said, “Wait, what? What do you mean you’re leaving? We just got—“

Thomas not wanting to continue a single moment more of this charade until he sorted things out, got really close up in Gally’s face, “Listen. I haven’t seen my boyfriend in forever, okay?” He dropped his voice low, “I don’t think I need your  _permission_ to spend some time with him.”  

Before anyone else could say a word, Thomas dragged Minho out to a quieter corner of the bar. When he was sure his friends couldn’t see him anymore he dropped the guy’s hand. Sighing, Thomas rubbed his face with his hands.  

Finally, finally he turned to face his companion, who was standing with his arms crossed, just like the first time he had seen him. “Your welcome.” Minho said.

—

Thomas was sitting in the cafe, head bent over his book, when Newt showed up. “Thomas, we’re friends right?” The blonde boy didn’t bother sitting down as he fixed Thomas with an annoyed look.

“I thought that was mutually understood since the first day of freshman year?” Thomas looked at him, wondering what was up. Newt never called him by his first name.

“I wouldn’t have guessed!” Newt pulled a newspaper from his bag and slapped it in front of Thomas, who stared at his own face on the front page, “Considering how you completely disregarded informing _ME_ that you are dating the Varsity Captain of the Track Team!”

Thomas sat frozen in shock. This…wasn’t really happening right? He skimmed the article, a couple words catching his eye. A coming out party? What?

“I didn’t even know Minho was gay!” Newt went on, taking very little notice of Thomas’ expression. “Why didn’t you tell me about any of it?”

Thomas looked up to find Newt looking a little hurt as he waited expectantly. Instead of answering—what was he going to say anyways—Thomas grabbed his books, and the paper and sprinted out, vaguely hearing Newt yelling at him across the shop.

—

Thomas ran as fast as he could to Minho’s apartment, and threw open the door.

Three heads turned to face him, clearly in the middle of a conversation. Thomas knew he’d walked in at an awkward time, but he didn’t care. He didn’t particularly feel like making polite conversation either. Without pausing, he headed straight over to Minho.  

One of the other guys pointed to Thomas, “That him?” Before Minho could respond, he was pulled into his own room. 

“You’re not leaving a very good first impression.” Minho said as the door closed behind them.

“Did I out you?” Thomas waved the paper at Minho, ignoring his comment. “Are you even gay?”

Minho took the newspaper from Thomas and snorted at the cheesy headline. ‘Taken off the field’ indeed. There was a recognizable but poor quality picture of the two of them kissing at the bar in the center.

Just perfect. Like his life wasn’t complicated enough to begin with.

Minho smoothed down the edges as he thought how best to respond to the boy. “Not exactly,” he answered.

Thomas threw his hands up, “Well, if that isn’t the vaguest shit I’ve ever heard!” he said in a fierce whisper. “Not to mention how it answers _none_ of my questions!” 

Minho sighed, sitting down on his bed. “I’m not gay, I’m bi. And yeah I hadn’t come out yet, but I didn’t think word would spread so quickly. I thought I had time.” he shrugged.

Thomas frowned, “If it was such a big thing—I mean clearly. It made front page news for fucks sake— why did you do it? Why did you risk it to pretend to be dating me?”

“I heard your friends say they thought you made it up, which in all frankness you did. I thought I’d help. You were desperate enough to want a fake boyfriend before, so clearly this questioning was a regular thing. I didn’t expect you to kiss me though…”

Thomas turned red. “That was an accident,” he mumbled, dropping eye contact.

Minho shrugged again, “I’m not mad. I think the guys are just butt hurt that I didn’t tell them first.”

“No kidding.” Thomas said, thinking about Newt’s reaction. He looked back at Minho and saw the other boy’s eyes were on him. “Look, I’m sorry okay? I-It wasn’t supposed to blow up like this. I mean…I didn’t even know you were important!” 

Thomas saw Minho raise his eyebrow. “Like people would care,” he waved his hands in front of him trying to explain it better.

“You’re not making it better, shank.” Minho said sounding amused. “We have a real problem on our hands though,” he reminded him. “Now everyone thinks were dating. It’s not just our friends.”

Thomas groaned and sat down beside Minho. “What are we going to do?”

“Well,” Minho turned towards him with a small smile, “ it might be handy to know your name for starters.”


	2. Fighting the Undertow

A week after Minho he had been outed by the newspaper, him and Thomas had come to The Griever for the first time as an official couple. As in they had actively planned it this time, and agreed to meet at the bar.

After the initial shock over the news, it seemed to Minho that encounters with people had been better than he had expected. More and more people were coming to talk to him now than before, and that was saying something. Minho talked briefly with yet another girl who approached him as he was making his way over to Alby. At least this one he knew. She was from one of his classes.

“Where’s your usual entourage?” Alby asked as Minho took a seat beside him and ordered a beer from the bartender. It was Alby’s day off. God knows why he chose to spend it here anyways.

“Ben has a test, and Brenda has a sorority thing. You’re the only one that’s free to hang. Speaking of which, why are _you_ here?”  

“Came to see the drama unfold.” Alby said, sipping his own beer. Minho raised both eyebrows at him. “What? You _do_ remember, you asked me what his drink was right? Next thing I know, you two are dating and neither of you seem overly pleased to flaunt it.”

“Shit.” Minho muttered.

“I won’t tell anyone,” Alby assured him. “It’s way too much fun this way.” Minho grunted in response. “So?” Alby said after a while, “Was he worth it?”

“Jury’s still out on that.” Minho replied noncommittally.  

“Maybe that will help you decide,” Alby pointed to his right, with the bottle. Minho turned to look and saw a redhead talking to Thomas in a corner, who was smiling timidly at him.

“Are you serious.” Minho huffed and made his way over. “Hey sweety. Is this guy bothering you?” Minho asked Thomas as he fixed the stranger with a ‘beat it’ look. The guy was quick to leave as soon as he saw him. When Minho turned to Thomas, he found him glaring. “What was that?”

“What was what?” Thomas asked.

“That guy was flirting with you and you just let him. No ‘I have a boyfriend’. No ‘leave me alone’. I mean, did you forget the purpose of us being here together?”  

Thomas scoffed, “You’re one to talk, _Sweety_. Or have you not noticed that now you’re out, both girls and guys have been overly friendly? Like, they don’t seem to give a shit that you’re with someone, and you’re not really fending them off either. Call it being charismatic or whatever, but don’t stand here telling me to behave myself.”

Minho grabbed his arm as Thomas made to walk away. “No. We’re talking about this,” he said quietly, pulling a scowling Thomas back. “I honestly didn’t realize that was happening. Why didn’t you say something earlier?”

“Because I don’t want to be that guy,” Thomas crossed his arms over his chest, effectively shrugging Minho’s arm off. “The one who seems jealous. I’m not jealous, Minho! I’m annoyed. I just _smiled_ at him for the love of god!” Thomas fumed at his now apologetic fake boyfriend.

“I’ll do better, okay?” Minho said. He really did feel bad. Here he was lecturing Thomas, and it seemed like he wasn’t pulling any weight on his side.

“Good.” Thomas noticed that Minho didn't outright apologize, it would have to do for now. He then remembered that they were at the bar, and a couple of people were watching them. Shit. They had to make up, and quick.

He stepped up close enough to Minho, to make him look up. “Kiss me.” 

Minho raised his eyebrows at the comment that seemed like it came from nowhere and then caught on, as Thomas made a motion with his eyes, that people were watching.

“I don’t think so.” he said in response, “See, I have this theory…” he began.

“Well, could you enlighten me _after_ we’ve stopped being the center of attention?” Thomas snarked.

Minho bit his lip, trying to tamp down the smile threatening to break on his face. He was failing. “No, because it is important.” he said, as he brought his arms down and wrapped it around Thomas’ waist slowly, so the other boy knew what he was doing enough not to startle.

“We’re not going to kiss to prove we are together. People already think that we are. If we don’t kiss, it won’t make them think that any less. Besides, that display back there, could very well have been taken as me being jealous,” Minho smirked.

“So we’re never kissing,” Thomas said just to be clear. He was both equally relieved and disappointed. He chose not the analyze the latter.

“Only emergencies,” Minho conceded. “When people _really_ seem to doubt our claim.”

“Okay.” Thomas agreed thinking the only one they would have trouble proving would be Gally. Avoiding him shouldn't be too hard. To his dismay, he noted their situation hadn't improved, even with them standing so close to each other. “But could we maybe leave now? They haven’t _stopped_ staring.”

—

The next day, Thomas woke up on the sofa, and it took him a second to remember where he was.

He had asked Minho last night if he could crash at his place. Chuck had sort of sexiled him, and Newt was still not talking to him. He didn’t have that many close friends, so he was partly glad that he and Minho were doing this thing.

It didn’t make asking any less awkward. 

He sat up slowly, trying to relieve the crick in his neck from sleeping weird. He heard a snort coming from his right side and turned to find Minho looking amused.

“You have some pretty impressive bed hair there,” he said in answer to Thomas’ wordless question. “Want breakfast?”

Thomas yawned, scratching his head and making it worse, “I should head out. Got homework to do.”

“Suit yourself,” Minho said with an easy shrug, digging into… Thomas didn’t even know what it was. “Apple oatmeal. Though I make it from scratch, and add some stuff for extra flavour.” Minho supplied.

“Yeah okay. See you,” he said in parting. He was out in the corridor, when he saw a blonde figure walking a couple feet in front of him. 

Knowing how questionable he looked, Thomas kept quiet and didn’t try to engage his friend. Too bad Newt decided of all days, to be forgetful.

Newt turned around and caught sight of Thomas. The crease between his eyebrows deepened as he glanced at his crumpled attire, messy hair and looked back and forth between Thomas and Minho’s door. Considering how quietly Thomas had been walking behind him, it made him look even more guilty.

Newt had been avoiding him. He had even begun locking his door, which spoke volumes in how upset he was. Thomas had no idea why he was so mad to begin with. 

Wasn’t it just the other day that he wanted to know more about his relationship with Minho? And all of a sudden, no texts, ignoring his calls. It made no sense.

He wasn’t about to say that though. Then again, he wasn’t saying anything. They stood facing each other, like it was some sort of stand-off. Then Newt simply walked back to his door, ignoring Thomas completely.

Thinking it might be slightly creepy to find him still standing outside, Thomas turned around walking into Minho’s apartment same as usual. By not knocking.

“I changed my mind,” he said as soon as he entered. “Feed me.”

—

“A please would be nice once in a while,” Minho said drily, eyeing Thomas. Something was up. It was barely two minutes ago that the other boy had left and it already looked like he needed a hug.

Thomas ignored him and sat down on the sofa. Minho took a seat across from him. “Care to tell me what happened? You were being weird before we went to the bar too.”

Thomas was quiet as he stared at his hands, “My best friend’s not talking to me. I don’t get it. Just the other day… And now it’s radio silence. I just saw him outside which was alright, but he noticed me and he wasn't happy. I’m pretty sure I just made it worse.” he gestured to himself as an explanation.

Minho sat deep in thought, choosing to focus on Thomas and not the other thing. “Sometimes,” he ventured after a pause, “people get so angry at something and keep thinking it over and over. It leaves them in a constant state of anger, to a point where they themselves forget what got them mad to begin with, and just that they are.”

Thomas looked at him cluelessly, so Minho tried explaining. “It could be something like you not trusting him with this secret. Most likely, that’s what it is. If he’s your best friend, why was he the last to know? If he keeps thinking that over and over again, it’s easy to simply avoid you than trying to talk about it.”

“What do I do?” Thomas looked up as Minho walked to the kitchen and mixed him some oatmeal.

“Not much right now, I guess. Wait until he simmers down a little.” Minho passed him the bowl and sat back down.

Thomas sighed, and then trying some of the oatmeal, groaned loudly, “Oh God, _so_ good!!!”

He kept making suggestive sounds while eating it fast, until Minho said, “Any louder, and people really _will_ think we’re having sex.” He grinned as Thomas turned red with embarrassment, but quietened down considerably.

—

“So you really didn’t know who I was?” Minho finally asked, just as Thomas stood to take the bowl to the kitchen.

He took from him, looking at him expectantly. He nodded. “If I had known, I wouldn’t have kissed you. Even in gratitude. I probably would admit to it being fake right away, however embarrassing.”

“How come?” Minho asked. 

Thomas sat on the armrest and looked past Minho, as he started talking. “I really liked running in high school, and I was _good._ I was on the junior track team and was fully planning to continue even after. But I came out sometime between junior and senior year, and then when I went to senior tryouts, before I could even get on the field, I was…talked out of it.”

Minho watched him as he spoke in that detached manner, like it happened to someone else. He got an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach that Thomas wasn’t being completely honest. That ‘talked’ was not what actually happened. But he said nothing and listened on.

“I sort of lost interest in anything to do with track after that. More like, obsessively avoided it. When I found out we had an impressive Track and Field team, it didn’t make much of a difference to me.”

“I still run because, because it feels great,” Thomas’ lips turned up into a small smile, “I love the sound of the wind rushing past, and its so freeing, like I’m flying.”  

Thomas finally looked up at him, “But I would be lying if the fact that I can’t do so professionally, frustrates me. Some days, I hate the decision I made, hate who I am.”

They sat in silence for a while, lost in their own thoughts. That was a pretty heavy statement, so he didn’t hold it against the other boy for not filling the silence. “Tell me it’s gotten better. It _must_ have gotten better. Tell me the guys aren’t giving you a hard time.”

He looked so hopeful, Minho had half the urge to lie. He couldn’t do it though.

“Well, the Weight room and change rooms have been kind of tense. Suddenly learning about my sexual preference has changed their minds on what level of ‘friends’ we are, apparently.”

“That’s just—” Thomas was at a loss on what to say. He stood up and started pacing. Minho hid a smile, seeing the outrage on his face. “You would think a couple years later, they would be better about it. Mature and all the shit.” He turned to face him again.“But they still listen to you, right? You’re still Captain. Can’t you say something?”

“Yeah, but I don’t like throwing my weight around. Ordering them to treat me properly literally helps no one.” Minho shrugged, but Thomas could tell it was more than that. The guilty feeling was back.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

Minho looked surprised. “Why? You’re not the one whose biphobic.”

“You have this unique ability to keep forgetting that I outted you.”

“When are you going to stop torturing yourself over it?” Minho replied, crossing his arms. “I told you, I would have eventually come out. You just sped up the process.”

“But—“ Thomas started.

“No. It was my choice to step in like that. No one forced me, Thomas. Okay?”

They held each other in a stare until Thomas broke eye contact first. “Fine,” he huffed. “How are you, then?”

“I’m fine. It’ll pass soon enough.” Minho said softly. He saw Thomas’ concerned look returning. “Honestly, it’s fine. I’m dealing.”

“Really? How? Conceal don’t feel?” Thomas said the first words that came to him.

“I’m going to punch you in the face,” Minho said straight-faced. Thomas grinned widely in response. He could tell the mood had turned lighter just by his joke, and he was glad for it.

“Well now they know,” he couldn’t resist.

“Thomas…” Minho warned.

Thomas pursed his lips, trying to stop himself from continuing. It was no use. He started running the second he blurted out, ‘Let it go’.

—

Minho’s apartment wasn’t huge, but he had a lot of furniture. Thomas was fast, that was for sure. Soon it came to the point where he was simply trying to tire the other boy into giving up. Finally, Minho leaped over the table, in order to pin Thomas to the couch.

“Okay, okay, I get it. You hate Frozen.” he gasped into the cushions, completely out of breath. “Now would you get off me?”

“Nope.”

“Minho!”

“You were warned.” Minho said simply.

Thomas struggled to get free of him, but he was unable to move, his arm twisted behind his back, and his other trapped under his weight.

“Please?”

“Huh, new word for you right?” Minho asked. Annoying Thomas shouldn’t have been as fun as it was. Considering it was only a couple days back, that he was a little more than a stranger, being like this with him was oddly easy.

Thomas was about to bite back a reply, when the door opened and in walked Brenda, “Min—Oh!” her eyes went wide as she spotted them on the couch, “Uh, nevermind. Bye.” The door was shut quickly behind her.

Thomas groaned loudly, wanting to just die out of embarrassment. But all he heard above him was, “I should really start locking that door.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hullo Lovelies!! Hope you enjoyed that as much I enjoyed writing it. I had a lot more planned for this chapter but it felt good to end it here after some heavy talk. It is interesting how easy I find it to write Thomas and Minho arguing, but also being real with each other. I have started to work recently, so as today (Sunday) was my day off, I sat and just wrote the entire day. It was amazing!! Hope you enjoyed the fruits of my labour. Cheers :)


	3. In Your Blind Spot

“Funny seeing you here without your boyfriend,” the most unwelcome voice Thomas could have heard that day said.

“We’re dating, not conjoined twins. We’re allowed to be in two places at once.” Thomas replied without taking his eyes off his book, hoping Gally would get the hint and bugger off.

“So, you and Minho.” Gally took a seat across from him.

Seriously, what was _with_ this guy and his one track mind? What classes was he taking that he didn’t have anything better to do? Thomas still had three more readings to go through, and he was only halfway through this one.

“Where did you meet again?”

Thomas should have been expecting this. But he didn’t think Gally would actively seek him out to pester him.

“I didn’t mention it. So ‘again’ is out of the question.”

Evasiveness had become a friend in the past few days since this guy had been on his tail about his imaginary boyfriend. Plus, it bought him time to think up a convincing lie.

He spotted the logo on Chuck’s coffee cup that he had been drinking before the guy had disappeared. “Met him at The Coffee Bean.”  He heard Gally grumble a ‘makes sense’ but had no idea what he was talking about. It didn’t really matter, other than the fact that it worked.

“First date?”

“Movie.”  The lies were coming easier now that he was anticipating the common questions. Plus, he had a plan.

“Frozen.” Thomas volunteered, his lips twitching as he said it. “He hated it by the way. Made me promise not to bring it up but hey, first date and all. If anything, it was rememberable. He would probably murder me in my sleep, if he found out I told you.”  

Thomas barely took a breath before he launched into his fib again. “Should have said Transformers. _That_ was a good movie! The second that we saw the same night actually. See we went to the video store they have around the campus corner, and—”

He was about to keep going, but Gally was already out of his seat. “Oh wow! Look at the time!” he exclaimed. God he was a bad actor. “Have to go.”

Without waiting for a response, he took off. When he was sure Gally was out of sight, Thomas sniggered, pleased with himself. He only stopped when he heard Chuck grumbling to himself as he neared their table.

“I wish he would stop calling me Chucky.” Chuck fell onto his seat, with a new cup of coffee.

“Your presence would have been appreciated thirty seconds ago, _Chucky_.” Thomas said stressing the name.

“Don’t.” Chuck pointed a finger at him. “Chucky is literally the name of a creepy talking puppet from the nineties movies.” He shuddered just thinking about it. “And I assume you meant Gally. Just saw him walk out looking like someone was chasing him with meat cleaver.”

Thomas grinned, mentally patting himself on the back.

“Oh! You’re boyfriend says hi by the way.”

“Minho?” Thomas asked surprised.

Chuck looked at him like he was dumb, “Unless you have more than one boyfriend, and I’m just not aware.”

“Nope. One’s enough.”

“Be a pal and…warn me if you ever bring him over. I mean, I’m sure Minho’s you know, packin’ but—”

Thomas spluttered, “Why do people automatically think we’re having sex?”

“Have you _seen_ Minho when he’s on the field? Man! That guy can give anyone within a fifty mile radius an inferiority complex.”

Thomas rolled his eyes at Chuck’s exaggeration. “He’s more than just hot, you know?” Thomas said. Chuck opened his mouth, then changed his mind, settling for an amused smile as he bent over his books.

Thomas frowned though wondering when it had started bothering him that all people seemed to notice was Minho’s looks, since he himself hardly seemed to notice that himself anymore.

—

Thomas made his way down the bleachers, wary about being seen. As Minho’s ‘boyfriend’, people wouldn’t look twice his way, but the two of them hadn’t discussed this cheering squad business, so he knew Minho would find his presence odd.

He himself didn’t know why he was here. It had been ages since he had come anywhere near a track field.

Thomas tried to convince himself it wasn’t because of what Chuck said. He was curious as to what Varsity training entailed. Yup, that was it. Curiosity. Just curiosity.

He sat down a couple steps closer to the team, and watched them practice. Minho had every bit of an air a leader would, though it _did_ seem like there was tension between team mates.

As Thomas observed closely, he noticed how some members, would pause long seconds before following Minho’s instructions. More often than not, they would huddle together, whispering or nudging one another.

Even from a distance, Thomas could tell Minho was doing his best to act like it didn’t bother him.

But Thomas knew better. He clenched his jaw in anger.

The idiot was always smiling, joking around, it was easy for people to forget that Minho was still ‘dealing’ with these knuckle heads on a daily basis. Thomas left quickly. He couldn’t watch this anymore.

—

Minho was in the change room, taking a shower, when Thomas’ voice carried over to him. Quickly turned the taps off, he grabbed a towel and hurried over towards the sound of his voice.

Even before he turned around the corner, he heard what Thomas saying and it actually stopped him in his tracks.

“—don’t just wake up one day and decide you like both girls and guys. It’s not some in between step to realizing you’re gay. It’s not some fucking choice, it’s a part of him, and just because you _now_ know this part of him, doesn’t give you the right to be ass wads about it.”

“You must think you’re some pretty hot shots huh? Just because you have a dick attached to you, guys want you? Get over yourselves.” Minho could easily picture Thomas moving his hands about as he talked.

—

Minho was surprised and touched that Thomas was doing is—standing up for him—but the change rooms were off limits to non Runners. He could get in shit because of this. When he came into view, Thomas was facing away from him.

When Thomas took a breath, Minho cut in. “You can’t be here Thomas,” he said quietly.

“Yeah I know. I just…need to get this out.” Thomas said without turning around.

Minho took that opportunity to look at the guys on the team. Most of them looked shocked that a nobody wasn’t at all intimidated by them. But they also seemed like they were listening.

“You,” Thomas pointed to a guy in the back. “You like girls right? Are you going to stand there and tell me you don’t have a _type_ of girl you are attracted to hmm? That you’re just attracted to every girl that walks by you and want to bone her?”

He looked around, making eye contact with each of them. “Do you get it now, or do I need to keep going? Look. All I’m asking is for you ugly mugs to stop being assholes and go train hard so we can win us competitions!”

“We’ve won some.” A guy to Minho’s left said.

“Then win them all!!” Thomas shot back.

Minho as impressed as he was by the speech Thomas was giving, ducked his head to hide his smile, as he rubbed his forehead. Thomas sounded like a grandma scolding children.

He had to stop this now, or he was going to start laughing. Uncontrollably.

“Thom..” he started.

“Stop treating your Captain like shit is all I’m saying. I don’t think that’s asking much.”

—

Satisfied that out of the million things he had said, that something must have stuck, Thomas turned around to face Minho and kind of wished he hadn’t.

“Oh Lord,” Thomas’ eyes travelled down as water droplets rolled from Minho’s shoulders down to his bare chest, leading his eyes to the towel wrapped precariously on his hips.

Chuck hadn’t exaggerated one bit. Thomas bit his lip, wanting to run his hands all over that. Feel the hard muscle under his palms. Shit. He had an eight pack. How was this fair?  

“Eyes up here Thomas,” Thomas faintly heard Minho say, and it brought him back abruptly.

Thomas could practically feel all the blood rushing to his face, “Going. Going. So going!” he held his hands up and backed away, quickly leaving the change room.  

Minho didn’t know how Thomas could go from a one man Minho defence squad to a blushing mess. But it was cute, and he was barely keeping it together.

He looked at his teammates silently. Most of them looked chastised. Others were grinning, looking back and forth between him and the exit Thomas took. But the tension that was present before, had dispersed considerably.

He nodded at them and went to his locker, to change. A couple guys even came up and apologized for their behaviour which surprised him, but he was grateful.

—

Thomas waited for Minho in the corridor, figuring he owed him an explanation. He paced, as Minho’s teammates streamed out of the change room, and had gotten his nerves quite worked up, by the time he came out.

As soon as he saw Minho head toward him, Thomas started talking. Minho watched him quietly, but didn’t actually hear a word Thomas said.

No one had ever done something like that for him before. Sure they had expressed their anger and given the ‘if I was there I would’ speech. His friends were after all, very protective of each other. For the most part, he took care of himself.

But what surprised him was that Thomas _noticed_. This guy who barely knew him, stood up to guys twice his size, putting them neatly in their place. He had guts.

“—and I’m sorry, but I came to see you practice and I saw how they were treating you, and I got so MAD! I mean how do they even think this okay? So I felt like I had to d—“

Thomas’ tirade was abruptly cut short, as he felt soft lips pressing against his. He stepped back in surprise, bumping into the wall, getting sandwich between it and Minho in the process. Even if he could move, he wasn’t sure what he would do.

He felt a hand on his waist, and another on the back of his neck, fingers pulling at the short hair there, as Minho’s tongue slipped inside his already open mouth, the tip feeling along the roof of his mouth, before curling around Thomas’ tongue, causing him to reciprocate.

This was all happening really fast.

Thomas was pretty sure he forgot to breath, which is why his chest heaved as he stared at Minho—who fuck him—looked calm and collected, when he pulled away.

His hands dropped from holding Thomas and looked into those wide confused, questioning eyes. He himself didn’t really know what happened. But he was breaking his own rules, and he didn’t have a good enough reason to justify it.

“It was an emergency.” He said as a form of explanation, before walking away.

Thomas couldn’t even _begin_ to wrap his head around this, not really understanding what had just occurred. He slumped against the wall and slid down to the ground. Nothing made sense right now.

—

Stepping inside his apartment, Minho closed his door and leaned forehead against it, thinking about the kiss, and how natural it felt. Thomas had this weird ability to relax him, and he liked it. Except it made him do things like tackle him, or… like today.

He was messing everything up wasn’t he? Getting too close, too attached? There had to be some way to fix this.

—

Minho’s version of fixing it up was to completely ignore that ‘it’ happened _._

Which was driving Thomas mad. Especially since Minho decided to up his game on how touchy feely he got with _him._ It was starting to become a problem. He was only nineteen for gods sake. Have some mercy.

They were at the bar again. Apparently, all Minho did was party with his friends whenever he had time, and after a while Thomas was starting to get bored of it. Thomas actually hadn’t seen him in a while, but that had been a blessing, because he had no clue how to act around him anymore.

He had finally reached the conclusion, that Minho did what he did as a way of saying thank you. Which he could accept. It didn’t make being around him any easier though. Not when he knew what those lips were capable of making him feel.

Thomas had been at the bar stirring his rum and coke with the straw, spaced out, when Alby sidled up beside him.

“What’s up?”

“Ack!” Thomas startled and then let out a breath, exasperated. “What’s wrong with you!”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Alby said easily.

“It’s nothing,” Thomas said, and then it occurred to him that Alby wasn’t behind the bar, “Wait, why are you here on your day off?”

Alby shook his head at Thomas’ attempt to deflect the question away from himself, “Thomas… I know.”

“You know what?”

“Everything.”

“Oh really? Everything. You know my favourite colour? Hobbies? The secret of the universe?”

“About you and Minho,” Alby clarified, talking softly.

Thomas looked at him for a moment, starting to connect the dots. Alby was bartending the night this all started, and Minho knew what drink he really liked, but rarely got because of its price. Not many people knew that. But a bartender would.

“Oh.” Thomas said, looking back down at his drink. “Well, do you know the reason why he’s being an ass?”

“Minho doesn’t need a reason to be an ass. It’s like his natural state of being.”

Thomas was about to respond, when a hand came down on his shoulder from behind, startling him again, “Talking about me shanks?”

“Yes.” Alby and Thomas said in unison.  

Minho raised an eyebrow and then leaned over Thomas’ shoulder to whisper in his ear, “All good things I hope.”

It was taking all of Thomas’ willpower not to throw his drink in Minho’s face. The temptation was through the roof though.

‘You like him, he’s your boyfriend. Now act like it. People might be watching’, he thought, mentally preparing himself for what he was about to do.

Thomas turned around, and wrapped his arms around Minho’s waist, so they were standing fairly close, smiling and not bothering to keep his voice down.

“Well that depends on your version of good,” Thomas flashed him a smirk, and Minho knew trouble was cooking, “because I was telling him about that time we found the janitor’s closet and you did that thing with your—“

Minho slapped his hand over Thomas’ mouth, a gave him a warning glare, feeling heat in his cheeks. What was he _doing_? He glanced at his drink and saw that it was pretty much diluted, what with all the ice cubes melting. Okay, so not drunk.

Which only left one option. Well, two could play this game.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hullo Lovelies! I’m sorry its been so long since my last update. I have been battling with time to finish the chapter. Today was the day! A lot happened in this chapter and I have a lot more up my sleeve, but I’ll try not to leave such a big gap between chapters again. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and all it contained. Love much~


	4. Diving into the Ocean

Thomas was in the library looking for a book relating to his research project. The librarian said it had been returned two days ago, but he couldn’t find it anywhere. He looked down at the slip of paper to make sure he had the right numbers and bent down to see if maybe the one he wanted was on the wrong shelf, when he felt a hand squeezing his ass.

He flailed in alarm, dropping a couple books off the bookshelf as he turned around to find Minho standing behind him. “Nice ass.”

“I’m going to kill you.” Thomas hissed, trying to keep his voice down.

“I’d like to see you try.”

“There’s this thing called manners, Minho. Which clearly from the looks of it, is something you’ve never heard of.”

“I’m not doing this to everybody. Just you.” Minho leaned on the bookshelf beside Thomas, grinning at him.  Thomas was so cute when he got all mad at him.

“Lucky me.” Thomas rolled his eyes,”How did you even find me?”

“Chuck.”

That traitor. He had specifically told Chuck not to tell Minho where he was, because he didn’t want to be interrupted as he had plans to buckle down and finish some work. Minho was like a huge ball of distraction.

Thomas had tried studying with him one time, but the guy had been so full of mischief, he hadn’t got anything done.  

“You must be the most boring person on the planet. Who has no classes on Friday and still spends so much time at the library?”

“What do you want?” Thomas asked resigned. 

“Ouch. Not happy to see me?” Minho pretended to be wounded.

“I saw you day before yesterday. And the weekend before that. So there has to be a reason you’re here today, because it sure isn’t to see me again.” Thomas said flatly.

“But what if I only came to see your cute face?” Minho hid behind his teasing tone, “I can never get tired of looking at it.”

Thomas blushed not meeting his eyes. He knew Minho was kidding, but he couldn’t help but react to it. “Yeah well, I have work to do. So if it’s not something important,” he said as he turned back to his search, “I suggest you leave.”

Minho watched as Thomas frowned, repeatedly looking at a crumpled piece of paper and back at the shelves in front of him. He looked down at the books he had caused Thomas to drop earlier and picked them up, putting them on a trolley for read books.

When he came back, Thomas had moved down the isle looking frustrated. He looked over his shoulder at the title and serial number and stood back, skimming the books.

Spotting it one shelf up, he knew the boy would find it soon enough, but the opportunity was hard to miss.

Leaning over Thomas, front pushing against his back, he removed the book to the right side of his head, knowing fully well he could have easily done so standing beside him.

He showed him the book, still standing behind him, “This it?”

“Yeah,” Thomas said, relieved not having to turn around for it. He knew how his face looked. Minho must know at this point, that Thomas was attracted to him. He was such an ass.

“So there’s a house party tonight, and you’re coming. Bring a friend if you want.” Minho said casually.

“Sure,” Thomas replied as he flipped the page to the index, until the words registered. “Wait, what?” he turned around quickly, but Minho was already walking away.

“Be there.” He said over his shoulder.

Thomas threw his hands up as he watched Minho’s retreating figure, and sighed gustily. “A please would be nice once in a while,” he muttered.

—

Thomas was leaning a shoulder against a wall in the crowded living room, holding one of those cheap red cups, with even cheaper beer from the smell of it.

It wasn’t like he was uptight or anything, but he would have liked to be home, watching a movie on a Friday night. There were a couple interesting ones he wanted to check out.

As Thomas put his drink down, he looked around the room and spotted Newt talking to Alby. So much for bringing someone he knew for company, if they were going to ditch him anyway.

“Bored?” came a voice from behind him.

Thomas turned around glaring at Minho. “Yes.” he said shortly, annoyed that he kept creeping up behind him like this. This was literally the fourth time in one night. He suspected that the other boy liked the reaction he got out of him which is why he kept doing it.  

“Here I am at your ‘request’, bored out of my mind, and the only person who has bothered to talk to me is _you._ I could be home right now, watching a pirated movie, because I’m too broke to go see it in theatres.”

“If you want, I could take you?” Minho raised both eyebrows at him in question. Thomas blinked. He was joking right? He didn’t want to take up his offer for a movie, just to find out he was joking.  

“I’m serious Minho, why am I here?”

“My friends,” he said stepping a little closer—Thomas didn’t think this was necessary since people hardly seemed to be paying attention to them. Plus, it only reminded him of that kiss they shared. The one he had tried not to think about every _freaking_ time, Minho came close to him like this—“want to meet you. They say I’ve been hiding you from them, and they want to get to know you.”

Thomas swallowed, eyes dropping briefly to Minho’s lips, before looking away scanning the room. Anything to avoid staring into those eyes. The bad part of their close proximity was he couldn’t even push him away, and the worst part was realizing he didn’t want to. “Oh?”

Minho’s eyes zeroed in on Thomas’ lips, as the brunette wet them, continuing to search the room for faces he wouldn’t even recognize. He almost started wishing their host had invited Gally, so he would have an excuse to kiss him.

Minho placed his hand on Thomas’ waist, and those long lashed brown eyes were back on him in an instant. “Come with me,” he then grabbed his hand, weaving him through the crowd.

Thomas was pulled into the kitchen, where Minho pointed to a girl with short hair as Brenda who had joined in on Newt and Alby’s discussion. Thomas realized even before Minho pointed him out that he had seen Ben before; that day when he had barged into Minho’s apartment demanding to know if he did actually bat for his team.

Seeing Newt socialize with Minho’s people with such ease, made him slightly envious. He would have blended into the background a long time ago, if Minho hadn’t kept finding him wherever he was, and handing him cups of beer before disappearing again.

He let Minho lead him to the group forming around his best friend’s conversation, unconsciously squeezing his hand in his. He got a reassuring squeeze back. Coming closer, he realized they were talking sports.

Of course. Why wasn’t he surprised? Newt was a hardcore soccer—or football he called it—fan. There were a couple soccer enthusiasts around him, Brenda included.

She turned around when Minho drew nearer, her eyes brightening when she saw Thomas. Promptly leaving the conversation, she came over to them grinning widely, “Wow, Minho! You really know how to pick ‘em.” To Thomas she held out her hand, “I’m Brenda, Minho’s second.”

“Second?” Thomas asked, shaking her hand.

Brenda shrugged, “The best friend title was taken.” She seemed to have an easygoing personality. Thomas liked her instantly. “Plus, I’d like to think in some alternate reality, I would be Minho’s second in command. Like in a battle or something.”

“Forget second in command,” Thomas fake whispered, “I think you could lead an army on your own.”  

Brenda beamed at Minho, “I like him!!” she said, still holding onto Thomas’ arm.

“Hands off, Brenda. He’s taken.” Minho said sternly, but he seemed pleased. Looking at him now, Thomas wouldn’t have been able to tell that Minho was acting. He sounded so genuine. Turning to him Minho warned, “Don’t be fooled. She’s a shark.”  

Thomas wasn’t sure if he was serious but either way, he had made his way over to Alby, leaving him alone with Brenda.

“Where’s your drink?” Brenda asked.

“Oh, I forgot it somewhere.” Thomas replied vaguely.

“You mean the third drink that was handed to you that you conveniently misplaced?” Brenda cocked an eyebrow, and Thomas turned red with embarrassment. He hadn’t realized someone had been observing him. “You don’t like the beer do you?”

Thomas shrugged, “It’s not my go to drink. I haven’t really developed a taste for it yet.”

“At this point, I don’t think you will. Not a party goer then I assume.” It was a statement, not a question. He nodded anyway. “Then how did you meet Minho?”

Thomas didn’t think there would be a day he was glad that Gally was the nosy person he was, because he had a readymade lie in place, that he just had to embellish on.

“We met at the Coffee Bean. I had been preoccupied with something I don’t even remember now, that I wasn’t watching where I was going. I ended up spilling my drink all over Minho.”

Brenda jaw dropped amused, “I can just picture his face! What did he say?!”

“I didn’t really give him a chance to well, do _anything_ ; I was too busy tugging him over to the napkin stand and sort of complaining about how attractive he was, while I was trying to clean his shirt.”

Making up this story for Brenda was a whole lot more fun than for Gally, to a point, Thomas was actually enjoying himself. In some parallel universe, him and Minho could have potentially met that way.

Brenda was shaking from silent laughter by the end of it and Thomas grinned. He saw her turn towards the long haired brunette, as if she wanted to share the story with her, when she saw that her companion was Ben.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve told her to stay away from him. Teresa can do so much better,” she said so only Thomas could hear.

Thomas looked at her with raised eyebrows, “I take it you’re not Ben’s biggest fan.”

“I teach my girls to be a lot more selective. Guys like Ben are all cheap beer and chicken wings. Kappa girls, are more fine dining, cuisine and wine. You see the problem?”

Minho had mentioned Brenda being part of sorority or something, but she seemed higher up in the ladder than the impression he had gotten.  

“Plus, his personality is just lacking, you know.” Brenda continued, “Like you get a sense of someone, and I don’t know… There’s something about him that feels off.”

“He’s Minho’s best friend, so there must be something he sees that’s worth keeping a friendship for.” Thomas pointed out.

“Well, I don’t know much of that. They were friends before college. But Ben’s _very_ possessive of Minho, so…Watch out.”

Thomas tried not to let Brenda’s prejudices affect his viewing of Ben, but even after he was personally introduced to the guy, Ben didn’t engage in conversation with him.

Thomas stopped trying after a while.

—

The group had slowly gravitated toward the living room. Thomas stood by the food, not really being a part of any conversation. He took out his phone and looked at the time. Not bad, but not great either. He could stay for maybe an hour more.

Munching on some chips—he had almost emptied the entire bowl—he looked toward Minho deciding it was time to be a good fake boyfriend. He didn’t want his friends to think he didn’t want to be there, even if it was true.

He made his way over to Minho, who was grinning at something a person in front of him said. Thomas slipped his hands around his waist, and placed a light kiss behind his ear. 

This was the first time Thomas has initiated anything, that it took Minho by surprise. To his credit, he didn’t react too hard as he glanced back to make sure it was Thomas, before running fingers up and down the arms holding him at the front.

It was only when he felt Thomas’ breath tickling down his neck, before lips pressed lightly onto his shoulder resting there, that Minho looked back and found Thomas smiling at him softly.

Something warm curled in his chest when facing that openness in Thomas’ face. So he responded with a light peck on his nose, before going back to his conversation.

Thomas stayed where he was, half listening, until Newt began pulling him away because he needed a teammate to play beer pong. As Thomas was led out, he saw Minho turning fully to him looking something close to disappointed at his departure.

‘Help me,’ he mouthed, to which Minho mouthed back, ‘have fun,’ giving him an amused look, as a disgruntled Thomas was dragged away.

Just knowing that Thomas would rather be with him, than hang out with his own friend, made him smile even wider, as he tried to pay attention to what Clint was saying.

—

Minho found Thomas in the back room a few minutes later, ping pong table filled with cups of beer and a crowd gathered around them. He was standing with his arms crossed, watching the opposite team aim for the cups in front of them.

“How’s it going?” he asked, opting to stand beside him.

“Brenda loves me,” Thomas said smiling slightly. “Ben not no much.”

“How do you figure?” Minho asked surprised. Ben was a friendly guy.

“Well look at him,” Thomas gestured subtly in front of them. “He looks like he wants to choke me to death with how he’s glaring.”

“And you think that’s directed at you why?”  

Thomas gave him an amused look as Newt patted his shoulder to get his attention. Thomas rubbed his palms together before dipping a ball in water to clean it off.

As Minho watched, Thomas stepped up to the table, “Front centre,” he called and sailed the ball neatly into the opposing team’s triangle. Minho’s eyebrows shot up as Thomas grinned back at him. There were cheers around the room, as well as some groans.

“Tommy’s an ace at this,” Newt said gleefully as they watched Winston down the beer cup, and Ben grit his teeth. When it was the opposite team’s turn, Ben stepped up and called a cup but missed. Then it was Newt’s turn and he missed as well.

The game continued on, but every time it was Thomas’ turn he rarely missed, clearing the cups he called.

“Are you seeing why he may not like me? We’re winning,” Thomas grinned.

“We’ll see about that,” Minho commented looking at him mischievously. At Thomas’ questioning look, he walked over to Winston.

“Is that even allowed?” Thomas asked as he watched as Ben’s teammate gladly give up his spot to Minho.

“What? Not up for the challenge?” Minho raised his eyebrows, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

“Take him down, Thomas.” Newt whispered to him, grinning.  

Thomas cracked his knuckles, “Oh I fully plan to,” he replied evenly. Game on Minho, game on.

—

Thomas and Newt only had two cups left to clear on the table, while him and Ben had four. They were fairing a lot better now that he had taken Winston’s place.

He had to admit Thomas was really good at this game. He seemed to have a laser sharp focus when he wanted to achieve something. Minho had never seen this competitive side of him, so it took him by surprise.

But he was a competitive person too, which is why he did everything he could possibly think of, to break the brunette’s concentration.

—

Thomas knew as soon as Minho joined the game, what he was planning to do. Distract him while he concentrated on his aim, like he’d been doing for the other shots. The tactic had worked a couple times too, which was the reason why the other team had caught up.

It annoyed him, but he returned the favour, happy to see the effect he had on Minho. It was a nice change.

It became a little more of a playful competition, opposed to when he was competing against Ben, though neither side were willing to let the other win.

They were down to their last shot, so Thomas steeled himself like he would at the beginning of a run, mind emptying out sounds and faces.

Just before he threw the ball, he looked right at Minho and retaining eye contact, sank the ball, winning them the game. The room erupted with cheers.

Thomas got a couple whacks on the back in congratulations, but his eyes were trained on Minho, who was biting his lip his face unreadable.

Smirking, he said, “Drink up.”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hullo Lovelies! Has it really been a Month since I updated? I am so sorry!! Had to rewrite this chapter because the flow of the story seemed off. Took twice as long as usual. Apologies. Hope you enjoyed that instalment. I wanted to bring out Thomas’ confident side again, so I thought this would be a nice switch up. I had to actually look up how to play beer pong, and now know rules to a game I’ll never pIay LOL. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Love much :)


	5. Tearing Up Everything Between

Thomas was at the library, looking at his phone for the umpteenth time, when Brenda slid into the chair beside him. “He’s not coming.” she said quietly.

Thomas knew why she was here, the same reason why his fake boyfriend wasn’t. He didn’t have high hopes about seeing Minho, but he had texted him saying he would be at the library in his usual corner, in hopes of getting some answers.

Minho had a birthday party five days ago, and the only reason he knew about it was because it had been in the newspaper.

Thomas’ absence for the party obviously had been noticed by everyone who had attended. There were even rumours going around that they were broken up. The theory wasn’t so far fetched and if Minho decided to call it quits, then the best thing would be to go along with it.

But he had come to realize that he didn’t want it to end. Was that why it hurt so much when he hadn’t been invited? Had he pissed Minho off somewhere unknowingly?

It was like Brenda could read his mind, “Ben hosted it. A surprise party for Minho, since his actual birthday fell—“

“Around the time his forty percent grade essay was due. And since he does things last minute…Yeah I know. We were going to do something the weekend after.”

The plan was a lie of course. Thomas had no idea it was Minho’s birthday. Come to think of it, he didn’t even know how old Minho was. It probably should have been mentioned by the other boy, but this wasn’t the first time Minho had forgotten to tell him something important.

“I heard Ben telling Minho you were invited to the party. I know for a fact that it wasn’t true, because apart from Minho, only I have your number and Ben certainly didn’t ask me for it.”

It seemed like such a small detail, but Thomas couldn’t help grasping onto it, “Why do you have my number?”

“Security reasons.” Brenda shrugged.

Thomas’ jaw dropped. He was about to repeat what she had said before changing his mind. He sat back in his chair, mind processing Brenda’s words, finally coming to a sinking conclusion: Minho wouldn’t believe his word over his friend’s.

He was seriously at a loss. Should he go along with Ben’s lie and make up an excuse for his ‘absence’ or tell him the truth? After battling with indecision, he turned to her, “Why did you tell me this?” As far as he could tell, Brenda didn’t have any gain in the matter.

“I don’t know.” Brenda said honestly. “Maybe it’s because I didn’t want you to think he was the bad guy.” She got up, briefly resting her hand on his shoulder before leaving him alone with his thoughts.

—

Newt and Thomas were at The Griever having drinks. Or Newt was drinking, and Thomas was keeping him company.

It felt weird being at TG without Minho, but college stress was getting to him, as was the most popular topic of discussion on campus: his personal life. Well it wasn’t actually personal since it was something fabricated between two people, but yes, in general to everyone else’s eyes, it was personal.

“Did you get into a fight?” Newt asked, tapping his finger on the rim of his glass, making a nice ‘ting’ sound.

“We didn’t,” Thomas answered softly. “We might be now.”

Thomas looked at Newt then, wondering if now was the time to come clean with this whole fake dating thing. It would be nice to have someone in the know, and the worst his best friend could do was laugh at how pathetic it was that he got himself a fake boyfriend just to get Gally off his back.

But that was the other thing. Minho and him weren’t actually dating. So why did this feel like a real fight? He got that Minho was mad at him for not attending his party, because they were kind of friends at this point right? But this cold shoulder treatment didn’t make sense. Still, he wanted to fix it. He wanted to fix them.

“Did Minho tell you he came to see me?” Newt glanced at Thomas to see his surprise. “I didn’t think so. Told me to, what was it… ‘Get the stick shoved up my arse out’—“ Thomas groaned loudly head in his hands—“and stop ignoring you. He told me he was the one to ask you to keep your dating a secret from everyone, so to stop blaming you for it.”

“He didn’t tell me.” Thomas mumbled into his hands.

“That doesn’t surprise me. He doesn’t seem to be the type that let’s people see his soft side.”

“Or admit he has one.” Thomas added.

Newt clapped a hand on Thomas’ shoulder reassuringly. “Your boyfriend’s a good guy. I’m sure once he knows the truth, he’ll be reasonable. He’ll believe you.”

Newt paused, looking at Thomas’ silent phone, “After he answers at least one of your texts that is.”

—

Thomas was out on a run when he noticed grey clouds gathering just after 12. The weather forecast had mentioned rain in the late afternoon, and the sky had been clear when he left his place. If it had been a light drizzle he might have just kept going, but this was the kind of downpour that felt like knives against skin and he was drenched in no time.

Seeing a shelter up ahead he burst into The Coffee Bean out of breath and dripping wet, his white shirt plastered to his chest. Shaking the hair out of his eyes, he saw most of the occupants of the cafe looking up at his sudden arrival. Glancing at the floor he noticed a puddle forming around him. “Shit,” Thomas muttered looking up in the direction of the counter, when what he saw made him freeze.

Standing in front of him in an apron with the logo of The Coffee Bean in the front, was Minho.

All of a sudden little bits of conversation flew in and out of his mind as he looked on in surprise. It made sense to Gally that he met Minho at _this_ coffee shop. It made sense that Chuck had seen Minho that same day. It made sense how Brenda even for a second didn’t question Minho’s apparent reaction to Thomas spilling coffee on him.

Because Minho _worked_ at the coffee shop. And he was staring at Thomas with an expression he couldn’t read. God, he wished he could do something more than stare back.

—

The bell to the cafe dinged as more people came rushing in from being caught out in the rain, but his eyes were fixed on Thomas.

Thomas with his wet hair and shirt practically see through, his lean frame pronounced with the way the shirt moulded itself into the contours of his chest and stomach showing clear signs that he worked out.

And fuck did he look _hot_.

Trust this to be the moment Minho realized how gone he was over this boy. Despite being mad at him for not showing up at the party—and now he knew exactly _why_ he was so unreasonably upset—he wanted to pull that stupid stupid cute face close, look into those adorable Bambi eyes, and kiss those bitten red lips senseless.

He was still rooted to the spot, when a girl came barreling in bumping into Thomas and breaking their eye contact. “That came out of nowhere!’ she exclaimed.

Minho heard Thomas answer with a smile, “It sure did.” He had missed that smile. He had missed Thomas’ awkwardness around him. Or how easily he blushed around Minho. And his voice. He had missed hearing Thomas’ voice so much.

Ignoring his calls hadn’t been easy and even when the texts stopped coming, it hadn’t made him stop thinking about him pretty much all the time. He wanted so many things that he couldn’t have and it was too much all at once.

—

When Thomas turned around, Minho had turned his back on him. He looked outside and it was clear the rain wasn’t planning to let up any time soon. He had no choice but to stay whether Minho wanted him here or not.

He swallowed and made his was over to an empty seat at the back, forgoing ordering something for himself, even though it might help ease the chill of the air conditioned place on his damp skin.

Within no time at all he was shivering, wishing he had stay indoors instead of chancing the weather today. He could have missed one day of running, but no. He had been stubborn about it and look what it had gotten him.

Gazing out of the window feeling sorry for himself,Thomas didn’t realize he had company until he heard someone clear their throat to get his attention. Looking up, he saw Minho standing in front of his table.

“I have a spare shirt in the back you can borrow.” Minho started walking towards the door that led to both the washrooms as well as the back room without looking to see if Thomas was following.

Thomas looked towards the cash register and saw a blonde haired girl in the front, hesitating for just a second before entering through the door Minho had disappeared into.

—

Minho was rummaging through his duffel bag, when he heard Thomas step in. “Take off your shirt,” he said without turning around winced as he played back the words in his head. That hadn’t come out sounding sexual at _all._

This close proximity to Thomas was killing him, but he would do absolutely anything to get Thomas out of that fucking shirt so he could actually do his job properly. He had already messed up three orders; Sonya literally had shoved him towards the brunette.

Predictably Thomas squeaked, “What?” Of all the things he had pictured Minho’s first words in two weeks to him would be, telling him to undress wasn’t one of them.

Minho turned around with a red shirt of his, giving him his best unimpressed look, “Do you want to catch hypothermia?”

Thomas felt self conscious as he went to strip out of his shirt; it didn’t get any better when the tee got stuck, clinging to him like second skin.

Minho had looked away to give Thomas some privacy, when he heard a distressed sound. Turning back confused, his eyes widened. It was official—the world hated him. As if hot and wet Thomas wasn’t bad enough, they had to mix in practically half naked Thomas in there as well.

—

Thomas could neither get the shirt up or down with the way it was trapped around his shoulders, forcing his arms up. After a couple more seconds of struggling, he felt warm hands slip under where the shirt had bunched, making him freeze. Fingers dragged along his cold skin on either side slowly, until his arms were released of their imprisonment and the shirt was tugged over his head.

When he was free of the wretched thing, Thomas noticed how close they were standing. He could still feel the places Minho touched him seconds ago. He knew his face was flushed and not from the embarrassment earlier. After not seeing him for days, having Minho in his space was nothing short of overwhelming.

Minho wordlessly handed him his shirt and Thomas glad for the distraction, slipped it over his head. It was too big on him. Minho had broader shoulders and bigger biceps and there was just more of him in general.

If Thomas didn’t already feel small in the thing, he felt even smaller being under Minho’s sweeping gaze. No matter how much space a room might have, all it took was one look from him and he felt like a cornered rabbit, like prey. He should be used to it by now.

“It’s a bit big on you,” Minho commented casually, crossing his arms over his chest, giving him a critical once over. He didn’t know why he was still pretending like he hadn’t been ignoring Thomas the past couple days. He should be chewing him out right now but even with that, he didn’t know where to start.

He liked Thomas. He liked Thomas a _lot_. Having just realized this, made being around him even harder, since Thomas didn’t feel the same way. Physical attraction, sure it was there. But what Minho felt was so much more, and he didn’t even know the guy’s middle name. How crazy was that?

Thomas started fidgeting. He wanted to step closer to Minho, and simultaneously get as far away from him as possible. 

“I didn’t know about the party.” He finally blurted out when he couldn’t stand the tension any longer. Minho raised his eyebrow and it was such a familiar welcome sight, he wanted to smile but he continued instead. “I know you think I knew but I didn’t.”

Minho took a step back and it took everything he had, not to follow him. “Ben said he invited you,” he said slowly. 

“I honestly don’t know what to tell you.” Thomas sighed. “But I didn’t know, okay? Besides, why wouldn’t I be at your party? Wh-What reason would I have not to come? I mean, I’m your _boyfriend_!” Thomas stopped.

Well…no. No he wasn’t was he? What was he saying?! But it had simply slipped out and he found himself backtracking. “I mean.. I meant—You know what I meant.”

Silence fell between them again as Minho observed him carefully, not knowing what to think. Ben had been his close friend since before college. They knew everything about each other, except this—thing between him and Thomas. He didn’t see any reason to doubt Ben’s word now. Besides, why would he lie to him about Thomas’ absence?

He was about to open he mouth to say just that when the door swung open, and Sonya entered the room looking at Minho, “It’s getting busy out there. I need you in the front.”

Minho nodded glad for the interruption, and shouldered past Thomas exiting through the door. Sonya turned to him. “I kind of need to kick you out. Technically you aren’t allowed back here.”

She smiled apologetically. Thomas tried to smile back but he was failing miserably. He nodded picking up his wet shirt and walked across the room, careful not to look in Minho’s direction.

—

Luckily the rain had stopped, though there was still a damp chill in the air. Thomas walked out of the cafe and looking up at the innocently brightened sky, wished it would start raining again.

Something to reflect his mood. Playing the scene in the change room, didn’t do him any favours, it just made him even more jittery. There was too much tension and he wanted to get out of his head, maybe just for a little while. 

But no amount of running shut up the voice inside his head. The one who berated him for being an idiot over and over again. For letting his feelings for Minho—feeling he knew he shouldn’t have—get so bad. He had to stop this.

He had to end this, or he would go crazy.

—

When Minho opened the door, he wasn’t all too surprised to see Thomas standing there. Thomas looked at the folded shirt in his hand and looked back at him. “Can I come in?”

Strangely, this felt odd. Odd that after so many instances of simply inviting himself in, Thomas was asking permission now. It almost felt as though they were strangers.

Minho nodded and let him through, closing the door softly behind them. Something…something had changed between them and he wasn’t even sure he knew when it happened. He knew he liked Thomas, and he thought—or he hoped—there might be a possibility that he might like him back. And if there was, he would like to see where it went.

He just had to find a way to ask.

“Brenda came to see me,” Minho said as he eyed Thomas who was playing with the sleeves of his shirt. “Told me it was impossible that you would knew about the party, because only she has your number. I don’t even know why she would have it though.” The last sentence was mumbled.

“Security reasons.” Thomas said automatically. Minho gave him a questioning look. “She came to see me too. I asked her the same question,” he smiled crookedly at him and Minho smiled back. “You think she knows about us?”

“No. Brenda’s just being a good friend. And it’s obvious that she has taken a liking to you, otherwise she wouldn’t have tried to…patch us up.”  

Thomas nodded and dropped the shirt onto the back of the couch, just in order to do something.

Minho knew this was the chance for him to say something. To ask Thomas if there was possibility of them being a thing for real this time. Just as he bucked up the courage, Thomas spoke.

“You know, there are rumours saying we broke up,” Thomas tried for a casual tone. When he didn’t hear Minho reply, he turned to face him. “I think it would be best if we…encouraged those rumours.”

Minho’s face was unreadable. Thomas desperately wanted him to say something. Give some sort of excuse that he needed them to continue this a little while longer. Just anything. Anything that meant this wasn’t it. To change his mind, make him reconsider.

But when he replied, all he said was, “If that’s what you want.”

Thomas blinked rapidly, unable to look Minho in the eye anymore. Clearly the kiss meant nothing. It was just a random show of gratitude, that was quickly forgotten. And all those other moments they shared…he had hoped. Oh God he had hoped it had meant something.

Looks like it had been all in his head after all. Swallowing the lump in his throat, he answered, “That’s what I want,” before turning on his heel and walking out the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hullo Lovelies! *nervously looks toward the exit* I was hoping to put this off as much as possible, because I didn’t want to write these scenes, even though I knew I had to eventually. This version is my seventh draft, so the level of angst was brought down considerably. But I do love chapters like these, the ones that dig deep into emotions and bring out feelings, so no regrets on my side.


	6. The Earth Beneath My Feet

Alby was walking down the sidewalk, having been relieved from his shift at the club, when he found Minho sitting on one of the chairs outside The Coffee Bean by himself. “What are you doing out so late shank? Aren’t you supposed to be at TG with the rest of the gang?” Alby stopped in front of him.

“Had a late shift. Didn’t feel like drinking.” Minho responded, continuing to stare down the empty street.

“Right.” Alby said down opposite him. “And this has absolutely _nothing_ to do with your thing with Thomas?”

Minho sighed loudly. “I have a track meet coming up.” Alby arched an eyebrow, failing to see where Minho was going with this. “I haven’t been—My mind isn’t focused on the things it should be. I keep losing focus. I—“

“You miss him.” Alby stated. Minho hunched his shoulders letting his silence speak for him. “Why don’t you talk to him. Tell him how you feel.”

“He was the one to break it off, remember?”

“Funny how you say it like you were actually dating. Unless at some point…you both stopped pretending..”

“I can’t speak for him, but I know what I feel isn’t friendly love.”

Alby chuckled, shaking his head, “Can’t say I’m surprised. I don’t know how you didn’t see this coming, Minho. How could you _not_ end up liking someone you hung out with constantly.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be on my side? Make me feel better and all that shit?” Minho glared at him. “And you’re wrong. I had to spe—“

“Bullshit. There was no need to drag Thomas everywhere you went. You wanted an the excuse to spend time with him, and more often than not, get handsy with him.”

Minho blushed crimson. Apparently he had been transparent with his affec—attraction to Thomas.

“Trust me when I say, the number of times that boy found himself in positions within your reach, his staying there had very little to do with his obligation to pretend, and more to do with _wanting_ to be in your space. Liking it even.”

Minho was quiet for sometime. Alby watched him, sure that he was convincing himself that what Alby said was not true. He would have to use another tactic, to get through Minho’s wall of stubbornness.

“He was at the club the other day, you know. Got kicked out after getting into a fight with another guy.”

“Is he okay?” Minho asked immediately, looking worried.

Alby snorted, “He was fine. You should have seen the other guy.” Alby saw Minho’s jaw drop in surprise. “See the thing is..he’s only cute, forever blushing Thomas around _you._ ”

—

“This is pathetic. You’re being pathetic.” Chuck said from Thomas’ bedroom doorway. “At least come out and get lunch with me.”

“I’m not hungry,” Thomas mumbled, back hunched over his laptop as he sat on his bed reading an assignment. Or he could be procrastinating, Chuck didn’t really know. “Maybe later.”

Chuck rolled his eyes, tired of Thomas’ ‘maybe laters’. Maybe later was why his stomach was grumbling so much today. He didn’t know what was going on with his roommate, but Thomas was keeping himself holed up more than usual these past couple days, only going out for classes.

And two nights ago, he had thought taking Thomas out would be good for him, only to have something set him off so bad that he had picked a fight with Gally—someone twice his size— after the other guy had made an off handed comment about something.

He opened the door to leave, when he found a visitor outside, one fist raised as if to knock. “Good luck.” is all he said, after ushering Minho in with a sweep of his arm, and leaving abruptly.

Minho stood in the foyer, confused at Chuck’s departing words. Getting nervous, he walked through the dorm, looking into rooms to see which one was Thomas’.

Finding him sitting cross-legged on his bed, Minho glanced around the room noticing cafeteria cups of coffee literally stacked on the desk. Even from the distance, he noticed Thomas looking tired, like he hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in a while. There was a bruise on his left cheek where he guessed the guy Thomas fought had got one on him, and his knuckles were noticeably pink.

It seemed like he hadn’t noticed Minho yet, so he took a deep breath before making his presence known.

—

Thomas was so deep into the article about a mass murderer, that he only noticed his visitor when he came in his direct view, jerking back in surprise. He hadn’t heard anything that might have given him a clue as to how Minho got in, and a part of him wasn’t sure if he was imagining seeing him now.

Watching warily, he leaned as far back as his pillow allowed—when the Asian boy sat close enough, to have his knee nudge Thomas’—and looked around until he remembered he was in his own room, with nowhere to escape to.

Or he thought he didn’t. Minho on the other hand noticed Thomas’ reaction, but also keeping Alby’s words in mind, recognized that the opposite end of the bed was a clear path towards the door.  If Thomas really wanted to get out of this conversation, he had an option.

In fact, every time he had Thomas like this in the past, he always had the option. But he chose—and now was choosing, albeit subconsciously—not to take it.

It gave him hope.

—

“Heard you got into a fight.” Minho said after a long moment of silence, to which Thomas didn’t reply, a complicated mixture of emotions passing through the amber eyes fixed on him.

Now that he was here, he couldn’t for the life of him remember what he had rehearsed, so he rambled on, hoping Thomas would say something eventually. “I mean, well now I see it too. That bruise looks nasty, hope you applied something on it.”

Thomas continued to watch him, not knowing what to make of Minho’s appearance. He had been doing better. He had finally stared eating, feeling normal, and now this. His emotions were going haywire again.

“Does it hurt still?” Minho tried again, concern lacing his voice.

Thomas noticed how he seemed unsure of himself. This—he wasn’t used to seeing Minho like this. It didn’t feel right.

“A bit.” he responded, resolve to stay quiet breaking a little.

“I’m sure he deserved it,” Minho kept going, relieved that this stopped being a one-sided conversation.

Thomas didn’t want to talk about the bar incident. He didn’t want to talk period.

But Minho couldn’t know that Thomas’ violent reaction to what Gally had said, was because it had been about _him._ And if he asked, what lie was he going to tell?

“Why does no one know, we broke up?” Thomas asked quickly, diverting the other boy’s attention away from the current topic. 

Minho wasn’t expecting Thomas to ask him this question. He didn’t bother pointing out Thomas’ slip up.

“What makes you think I haven’t told anyone?” he returned with another question.

“Because, so far the newspaper has know everything about my personal life, and since there hasn’t been a peek of news about us, that’s how I know.”

Minho shrugged, “I didn’t think it was anyone’s business.”

Thomas’ looked at him incredulously, “Not anyone’s—?” He moved then so he was leaning forward. “This whole started, _because_ it became everyone’s business.” Thomas vaguely registered that he was raising his voice, but he was so agitated, he didn’t even realize he was scooting closer to Minho in the process. “That’s why we did all of this, Minho!”

Minho looked down at his hands. Thomas was right, he knew that. But somehow he couldn’t say it was over between them, because then it would really feel like it, and he didn’t want that.

“There is a track meet tomorrow.” Minho said quietly. “I would like it…if you could be there.”

What?

Thomas stared at him. Did Minho not understand what he had meant when he said he wanted them to stop..being them?

He took a deep breath, trying to tamp down the hurt and anger, threatening to crush his chest. “I can’t do that. I refuse to be some kind of _entertainment_ for you people.”

Minho swallowed. He had one last try, he hoped to would work. If not…he didn’t even want to go there. “I’m not here for everyone else. I’m here for me.” He said keeping steady eye contact with Thomas. “I’m not asking you this because it’ll make me look good or something.”

Minho grabbed the hand that was laying between them, squeezing it gently. “I’m asking you for _me_. I don’t just want you there, I need you there. I _need_ you, Thomas.”

Thomas sat back on his heels, rendered speechless. His mouth moved as he tried to say something, but his voice caught in his throat. Instead, he pulled away from Minho grasp.

Minho exhaled loudly. “Okay.” He nodded standing up slowly. “Yeah, I uh..Okay.”  

With that, he exited out the door quickly.

Thomas sat still as a statue for a long time after he heard the loud snap of the main door closing. He was so deep in his thoughts, he didn’t hear it when Chuck came back in, didn’t even hear his roommate trying to talk to him. The only thing he did hear were Minho’s words running continuously in his mind like a carousel.

It was a long time before he could function like a regular human being again.

—

Later that day, Thomas stood waiting outside the change rooms. As soon as someone stepped out, Thomas grabbed their arm. Putting on a bright smile, Thomas asked, “Hey. Can you get Minho for me?”

“What? Not going to invite yourself in?” the jock grinned.

“I learned my lesson,” Thomas said, “Could you maybe not mention to him, that it’s me though?” If Minho’s teammate thought it was an odd request, he kept it to himself as went to go get him.

As he waited, Thomas not for the first time thought how he was making a mistake. But he had never seen Minho look so vulnerable, he would be a monster, if he didn’t do this. Whatever _this_ was.

Minho came out the door looking preoccupied, that he didn’t notice Thomas right away.  “Oh,” was all he said, once he did. He didn’t come over, didn’t invade his space—he just stood in one spot, looking at him, waiting.

It was insane how badly Thomas wanted to pull Minho toward him. The other boy always had this effect on him; it was hard keeping his distance. Standing in the same corridor that led to their first kiss, rushed to the forefront of his mind, and his confidence slipped a little.

“I’ll be there.” he said meeting his eyes, voice a little more than a whisper, feeling completely drained just then, and turned around, walking back down the corridor without waiting for a reply.

—

Thomas took a seat in the stadium close to the ground, with students all around him dressed in Glade College colours, and holding signs of encouragement with slogans or athletes’ names written on them. He hope no one noticed that he was not wearing any visual signs of support for Minho. He didn’t think he could handle the criticism now, when he wasn’t even sure what he was doing here.

Minho was competing in the Middle Distances races today, and also in varied different Track & Field events over the course of three days. Thomas didn’t check to see how many competitions were after this one.

The moment Minho was on the field, his eyes zeroed on him and stay there. Minho’s form was great—which didn’t come as as much of a surprise, because he was after all, Captain—but Thomas had never seen him run before, and even before they turned for the last stretch, he knew that Minho would win them the competition.

After the event, there was a group of people gathering on the field, around the home team. Thomas stood up unsure what to do, but he had a long time to think, and came to realize that maybe everything wasn’t black and white between the two of them.

Minho said this wasn’t a publicity stunt, so asking him to show up, had to mean he felt something for Thomas. This was good. This was what he had wanted, but how should they even _begin_ to talk about it? It was such an awkward situation.

Making up his mind, he nervously made his way down, standing just on the edge of the crowd around Minho. Maybe this was too much of a public place to have this talk, but he should at least give him his congrats.  

At one point Thomas lost sight of Minho, but when he turned around, there he was, standing in front of him. He could never figure out how Minho always managed to find him in crowded spaces, but he wasn’t about to ask about it now.

“Thanks for being here. For coming.” Minho smiled, not even sounding winded.

“I said I would..be here, so I-I came,” Thomas stammered. “You had good form. Um..all t-that training clearly paid off,” he heard himself say. This conversation sounded painfully polite. Painful being the keyword.

They stood awkwardly in front of one another, until Minho stepped closer, “I like you. I like you a _lot_. Probably more than I should considering I’ve only know—“

Thomas didn’t give him chance to finish as he launched himself forward, and cupped Minho’s face in his hands, kissing him. It wasn’t perfect, but he wasn’t going for technique. All he cared at that moment, was Minho’s lips on his.

It took only a moment for Minho to react. Then a hand slipped to the small of Thomas’ back and pressed him forward; his other travelled up in his hair and angled his head, before deepening the kiss, causing Thomas’ knees to turn into jelly.

When they broke apart, Thomas leaned his forehead and most of his weight against Minho’s, breathing like he was the one that competed today. Somewhere to their right, they heard someone comment, “..that wasn’t a make up kiss…”

“No. No it isn’t.” Thomas agreed softly, biting his bottom lip as he looked at Minho, who smiled widely before leaning back in, capturing Thomas’ lips in a sweet kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \ (◠‿◠) /
> 
> Worth the wait Lovelies? This was originally going to be a five chapter story, and then it became much longer. I was tempted to leave the story like this, but I’ve decided to write one more chapter for you guys, because I just Adore my babies <3 and it’s hard saying good bye. Also overwhelmed by the response of the last chapter!! Love you all


	7. Giving Me All I Need

Kissing Minho was an experience within itself.  His touches gentle, where as his kisses demanding—it was so easy to get swept up in. Lost in the sensation, Thomas actually forgot where they were. The fact that his mind was completely blank, was something he had never happened before, and Thomas wanted, no he _needed_ more. He was so caught up in the moment, it surprised him off Minho, when someone cleared their throat beside them.

The boys turned to see Brenda standing there smirking, no doubt congratulating herself on a jobwell done—Thomas could easily picture it. She gave Thomas a warm smile thinking they made up, before giving Minho a hug. 

“Congratulations! We have to go celebrate your win.” Before Minho could respond, a couple other his friends came in, to congratulate him too.

Thomas was sure it was unintentional, but soon enough he was pushed back again. He didn’t try to shoulder his way through; someone was bound to accidentally elbow him in the face, or in Ben’s case, purposely do it. He still hadn’t worked out how to deal with the idea that Minho’s best friend hated him for the sole reason of dating Minho, but he didn’t want to further irritate Ben by bringing attention back to himself. 

Still he couldn’t help but feel annoyed when someone suggested going to TG. No doubt that’s where they would end up going. Before he could even muster an eye roll though, Minho had squeezed his way through the crowd, standing in front of him. 

“Not tonight guys.” His words were directed at his friends, but his eyes locked on Thomas’, who could only blink astounded as Minho took both his hands in his, leading him away from the crowd, and off the field. 

—

“Don’t you people know any other places to go for celebrations?” Thomas asked as they made their way to The Coffee Bean after Minho had changed to regular clothes. Minho rolled his eyes, and Thomas realized his words were taken incorrectly. “No, I meant… There’s a bar down the street called Wicked. Newt, Chuck and some friends of theirs would go down there once in a while.”

“Yeah the place closed down.”

“Wait—what?”

Minho ruffled his hair, “Have I mentioned how _adorable_ you are?” Thomas smacked his hand off him. 

“When?”

“A year ago maybe? You don’t get out much do you?”

Thomas shrugged, “My classes don’t really allow it. And I can’t really walk into lectures hung over and expect to understand a _word_ the prof says on neuroscience, now can I?”

“That’s a study of the brain right?”

“Good job!” Thomas pat Minho on the head, and Minho mimicked his earlier movement. 

“Shut up! I’m an athlete not an imbecile. I got in through a scholarship you know, but I’m still majoring in Kinesiology.”

“Oh. Wow. How the hell do you manage both work and play like that?”

“Because I’m a genius.” Minho smirked. Thomas made a face at him, which brought out a chuckle. “Mostly a lot of trial and error really. Ben was all about bars and picking up girls earlier on. Well technically he still is—belongs to the campus frat.”

“How did _you_ not get tapped?” Thomas put his hands in his pockets enjoying the slow walk to place Minho worked. They needed to talk about what this was between them, but learning about Minho, was a lot more fun. At lot less serious. Not that he was against labelling them or anything, but he had no idea how to bring it up.

“I did.” They walked quietly, until Thomas swept his gaze from the ground, to the boy’s black eyes, prompting him with his own.

Minho opened his mouth but when he spoke, it wasn’t to their conversation. “I really like you.” Thomas stopped walking so abruptly, he almost tripped. Apparently Minho had been thinking about this ‘need to have’ conversation as much as him. Minho steadied him with a hand on his wrist. 

“I've only known you for a couple weeks, but I like you. I don’t know what _you_ want from this, but the sooner I know the better, before I do something stupid and…” Minho trailed off, trying to find his words when Thomas remained silent. 

He wasn’t used to putting himself out there. Feeling vulnerable was new to him, and trying to get Thomas to come to the meet, was the first time Minho understood that in order to get what he wanted when it came to relationships, he would have to work for it. On top of that, he felt like he had already crossed over the ‘something stupid’ line, so he was hoping against hope, that Thomas wanted to try at this thing as much as he did.   

“I have never been in a relationship with a guy before, and just pretending to be in one, had so many obstacles to it so I don’t suspect this to be easy. If this is something you want or don’t, I need you to tell me now, okay?”

Thomas bit his lip, the answer clearly in his mind, but he knew he still had to say it out loud.  Seeing Minho tense up just a bit, while he searched for the right words, Thomas rushed out, “I want that too. All of it. I’ve never been in a relationship period, so this is new for me too.”

“Yeah?” Relief coloured Minho’s features. He suddenly felt a lot lighter.

“Yeah.” Thomas nodded.

“Okay. We’ll take it slow then,” he smiled.

Thomas pursed his lips, “I’d like that,” he agreed. They started walking again. Most people on the streets didn’t know about the wins today, so no one came up to them to congratulate Minho and maybe start a conversation. It wasn’t that he was opposed to the athlete’s popularity—it’s just today. Today he wanted him all to himself.

“You know we’ll have to tell our friends we were fake dating eventually right? Otherwise they’ll keep making faces or comments that’s bound to piss us off at some point.” 

“I know,” Thomas sighed, “It’s just so embarrassing…”

“I thought it was cute.” 

“Well, everyone’s not you Minho.” Thomas was quick to retort.

“Thank god for that. I don’t think the world could handle so much awesomeness.” Minho joked. Thomas bumped shoulders with him. He bumped back. “We don’t have to tell them the exact version of what happened,” Minho said thoughtfully. “We can say we met elsewhere and then saw each other again at the bar, and I offered to help you. That’s close enough to what happened, right?”

“Yeah.” Thomas perked up at the idea. “I told Brenda we met when I spilled coffee all over you at Cobe.”

“Cobe?” Minho raised an eyebrow.

“It’s what Chuck calls Coffee Bean.” Thomas explained. 

“Chucky’s quite the character! I’ve noticed he has an unusual way of talking.”

Thomas laughed, “Yeah, he’s one of a kind, that one.” He then thought of something, “What about Alby though? He knows we didn’t really know know each other from before, and you certainly didn’t try to cover it up when he confronted you.”

“I’m not too worried about him to be honest. He knows if anyone learns that he was aware it was a charade along, he’d be in deep shit.”

“Brenda I take it.” Thomas grinned, thinking about the short-haired feisty chick. 

“You haven’t seen that side of her,” Minho shuddered, “She’s scary.”

“So don’t get on Brenda’s bad side?” Thomas asked still amused.

“She will destroy you.” Minho said in all seriousness. 

—

“So what will you have?” Minho asked Thomas, wallet already out. The cafe was pretty much dead at this hour, most of the students at the different meets happening today, this being one of the college’s bigger events. 

“Really Minho?” The curly haired girl looked at him judgementally, clearly having low opinions of how little he knew about Thomas as his boyfriend. He ignored her. 

“Um..I drink tea.” Thomas responded.

Minho straightened up, “You gotta be shitting me.” 

Thomas laughed, “I am, don’t worry.”

“Whew!” Minho said over dramatically, “I was worried for a moment that we’d have to call it off.”

“All over tea?” Thomas raised an eyebrow.

“It says a lot about a person,” Minho shrugged. 

Thomas shook his head, but he was smiling. He found that he couldn’t _stop_ smiling. “I guess it’s a taste you have to develop if you’re used to coffee. It’s all Newt drinks.”

“Well I didn’t just ask out Newt.”

“Technically you still haven’t asked me out,” Thomas grinned. 

“Yeah well, back at you.”

“Okay, hold on.” Harriet interrupted. Minho forgot she was standing there behind the counter. “What are you guys talking about? Haven’t you been dating?”

Minho looked at Thomas. This was it. This was the moment they could play it off as a joke. They had talked about this in length while walking here, going back and forth between telling the truth or more lies. In the end, he had left it up to Thomas to decide since he was the one that had needed a fake boyfriend to begin with.

Thomas bit his lip. It wasn’t like they were actually going to give specifics of what happened. And if someone pushed, then they still had time to think of a good enough response. But for the most part, he was tired. Lying was exhausting.

“We’ve been pretending to date.”

Harriet’s brows furrowed in confusion, “What? Why?”

“It’s kind of a long, weird story.” Thomas said. 

Harriet gave them a look as if to say go on. “I—we—“ he started, but this story was much harder to navigate than he thought it would be. He looked at Minho, hoping he would take over.

“Okay, so Thom and I met once before on accident, and then a couple days later, I saw him in a fix and went to help him out. Told the guy giving him a hard time, I was his boyfriend. Everything would have been fine, except this shuckface—“

“Hey! I said it wa—“

“—kissed me, and some shank at the club took a picture.”

“So then, are either of you actually gay?” Harriet looked completely lost. Minho didn’t blame her.

“No. I mean, I’m bisexual. Thomas here is gay.” Minho caught Thomas looking a little guilty. “Stop it.” He said firmly. He really wished the brunette would stop reliving that moment. “If you apologize one more time, I’ll punch you.” 

Thomas knew it was just an expression not a threat, but he kept quiet, wondering when Minho had gotten so good at reading him.

“Speaking of punching,” Sonya joined them, catching the tail end of the conversation, “What did Gally say to you?”

It took only a second for Minho to connect the dots, “You fought _Gally_?” He gaped in disbelief; Thomas shot a murderous look at the blonde.

“Yeah,” Sonya answered for Thomas, enjoying watching him squirm. It was clear he had had no intention of telling Minho about the event. “Socked him right in the face. I’ve never seen anyone take Gally before. It was amazing!” 

She looked at Minho, “You’re boyfriend seemed like he was ready for Round two, if Chuck had not pulled him away.”

“That’s the thing. They weren’t actually dating then.” Harriet cut in.

“What?” Sonya frowned in confusion, “But I saw you at Siggy’s. There was no way you were faking it.”

“Was that when?” Minho asked Thomas softly. He still wanted to know about the fight thing. Thomas seemed to want to avoid the topic, which in turn made him want to learn about it more, but this seemed a lot more important. 

Thomas shook his head. “Much before, I think.”

“Me too.” 

“Oh. Wow.” Sonya’s eyes widened. This explained so much—especially why she had never heard of Thomas until the paper came out. Plus, Minho had been so vague, constantly dodging her questions. It had been so annoying, but now it made sense. “So what now? Are you going to tell everyone, or just the group?”

“Just the group,” Minho said, “but we don’t want them knowing how we really met. I need a favour. I need you to support our cover story.” 

Harriet looked at him weirdly. “Telling the truth but coming up with a lie on how you met to cover up the truth?”

“Hey, I know it sounds weird but trust me, the first meeting was—“ Minho stopped. He didn’t even have to look at Thomas to know his face was bright red with embarrassment. 

The two girls also saw this. “If it’s that bad, yeah sure.” Sonya quickly agreed. 

“So what did you have in mind for the cover-up?” Harriet asked after a pause. It was still hard to believe the guy that murdered Ben at beer pong at Siggy’s and punched the shit out of Gally, was a same boy in front of her, all shy smiles and blushing cheeks. 

Thomas looked at Minho, surprised. The girls accepted the explanation just like that? How did Minho have such awesome friends?

—

“I would invite you in, but I have an early morning class, and Chuck’s home right now.” Thomas said as they walked through the building to his dorm room. 

“Yeah, sure” Minho said easily.

They hadn’t ended up stayed long at the coffee shop after talking to the girls, leaving as soon as the usual rush came in. Thomas, not ready to part with Minho just yet, asked if the other boy would walk him back to his dorm.

They were just outside Thomas door, when Minho brought it up. “So...the fight.” Minho started. “You punched a guy for me.” 

Thomas sighed. He should have known Minho wouldn’t be the kind to let it go. That once the other boy figured out it was somehow involving _him_ , he would prod at it until he got answers.

Head down, he purposely looked at his shoes as he answered, “I don’t know why he thought that was a smart idea to bad mouth you, even though we weren’t talking at the time. I mean even with the assumption that we had broken up hanging in the air, you have to admit it was a dumb move.” 

“What did he say?”

Thomas snorted, “Really? I wasn’t going to mention this to you at _all_. What makes you think that’s something I’ll share?”

“Thomas…” Minho stepped closer to him.

“Nope. I'm not telling you any—“ That’s when he noticed Minho’s nearness, “Wh—what are you doing?” He swallowed, eyes darting around the hallway.

 “Trying to get information obviously..” Minho stepped closer smirking, making his intentions clear. Thomas instinctively stepped back, which made him smile wider.

 “Minho..You can’t win arguments this way. Th—this is cheating.”

“I didn’t know we were arguing, but if so, the solution is pretty simple.” Minho replied. 

“I’m not a fan of PDA.” Thomas tried. 

“That is weird, especially since your kisses with me were all the public ones.”

That was different, Thomas’ mind tried to argue. He hadn’t been thinking both times; it had just happened! At that point, Minho was close enough that Thomas could feel his breath on his lips. Thomas himself had difficulty breathing. He had no doubt that by now his face was flushed, and he was feeling hot all over. 

“All you have to do is tell me what Gally said.”

“Yes but—“ Thomas searched for a reason—any reason—to stall Minho. He was trying think clearly; they were supposed to take it slow, and he knew if Minho started something, he’d have a hard time controlling himself.

And who would blame him? Minho was gorgeous. Those arms..god those arms! And his abs. Thomas was on the verge of drooling just thinking about it. 

“But?” Minho had Thomas pinned against the door frame, hands casually on his hips tracing lazy circles on them. 

Thomas’ eyes dropped to Minho’s lips and up into those twinkling black eyes. The expression on Minho’s face stated he knew he had won, that Thomas was folding. He was, but not for the reasons he thought. It felt like in that moment, all the sexual tension that had been building for the last month, came to a head. 

It wasn’t even to use it as a distraction. In a flash, he had leaned forward, closing the little space they had between them.

It caught Minho by surprise. He had only meant to tease Thomas like he always did—get him blushing and all that. He hadn’t expected the other’s reaction to be so explosive, kissing him fiercely, hands cupping his face before running fingers through his hair, pulling him closer and voluntarily allowing himself to be bodily pinned, as he reconnected his back to the door with a loud bang. 

Minho’s recovery was quick thought, and he returned those kisses with as much fervour, revelling in the fact that he could do this now; kiss Thomas without a care, without worrying that the other would think it being a calculative gesture. That Thomas knew now that he wanted this just as much as he did.

His hands that rested on Thomas’ hips, gripped him tighter. His other hand travelled to the nape of Thomas’ neck, curling into his hair, as he tilted his head to a favourable angle, deepening the kiss.

—

Thomas was running short of breath, the doorknob digging uncomfortably into his back, but his mind and body were not in sync with each other—he couldn’t bring himself to part from the other boy. He lost his train of thought completely shortly after, when Minho slotted a leg between his thighs rocking forward, causing Thomas to moan into the hot mouth, slanting over his again and again, tongue curling around his, kisses getting filthier. 

They were so wrapped up in each other, it didn’t occur to them, how much noise they were making. Suddenly, the door opened, and Thomas almost fell through, Minho catching him the last second. 

Chuck took one look at Thomas’ swollen lips and Minho’s disheveled appearance, before grabbing his keys off the table by the door. “Room’s all yours. I’ll be back tomorrow. _Late_.” He stressed the last word, turning away, hands in his pockets. 

Thomas and Minho watched him go out the door at the hallway, and then looked at each other, bursting out laughing. 

“Well, we’re certainly feeding the sex assumption full force now,” Minho grinned.

“Oh my God,” Thomas, leaned his forehead against Minho’s, partially trying to hide the full on blush, and partially taking this opportunity to get some air in his lungs. Chuck was going to tease him mercilessly about this, especially if he told Newt. Thomas prayed he wouldn’t tell Newt. 

Thomas leaned back to look at the other boy, a couple breaths later. Seeing the rapid rise and fall of Minho’s chest, told him he was out of breath too. His eyes roamed from Minho’s mussed up hair, to his heavy lidded eyes, and red bitten lips. He grinned at him, filled with a weird sense of satisfaction upon seeing he was the cause of that.

Biting his lower lip, Thomas lid out of Minho’s embrace, shouldering the door to open it wider. 

“You coming?” he asked, one eyebrow raised. 

The door could close fast enough behind them. 

They didn’t do anything other than make out that night, constantly having to remind each other to take it slow. They had all the time in the world to get to know each other, but it was a relief knowing that finally there was a word that defined their relationship.

Not something vague like, being more than a stranger but not quite a friend. Just boyfriend.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY right Lovelies? How’s everyone doing? I’m sorry it took literally four months to update this chapter. For the ending, I’ve never written anything close to resembling smut, so I hope it turned out okay. I thought after all those sexually charged encounters, you deserved a little some somethin’ ;) It shouldn't have been so, but I had a difficult time deciding what would go into this chapter, and it took a lot of trials and rewriting to come up with something that I was satisfied with. I’ve ditched entire pages of work, because it didn’t feel right.
> 
> EDIT 04/06/17 : This is the last chapter my Loves!! After a lot of tries, I've decided, this is the perfect ending for them. I love Thomas and Minho to death, and they will always be my favourite couple to write. I can't believe the volume of people who enjoyed it. For all who liked and commented on my work! It meant the WORLD to me~words cannot express! 
> 
> Thank you for taking this ride with me. LOVE YOU   
> ~nenz

**Author's Note:**

> Hello Lovelies! This is my first fanfiction in the TMR fandom. I’ve always loved the fake/pretend relationship troupe and there aren’t that many stories out there of this kind, so I'm writing one :) I’ve been thinking about a story for Thominho for a while now. Plus I love the dynamic between them and they are my favourite characters. I hope you enjoyed my take on this. All mistakes are my own. Cheers


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